As human beings, we naturally bent towards things we listen rather than lifeless, static reports. Inspired by this fact, one Indian company started to furnish its client with an automatic report generator widget. vPhrase, a Mumbai-based startup launched this widget in April 2015, by the Founder Neerav.

The company works on a patent-pending platform, Phrazo. It provides the insight from the data to the user, based on Artificial Intelligence and Big data. The final report is narrated like a story in a comprehensive manner.

 

Problem Generates The Solution

Neerav left engineering after one year to pursue B.Com from Mumbai’s Sydenham. Then he went for an MBA from NMIMS (Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies). During placements in his college, he was placed in Citi Bank. He was clear to be an independent soul, therefore, was not that interested serving the Bank more so he invested his creativity for his first venture.

Neerav possesses a significant experience in Technology, Finance, and Marketing field. He started two companies before VPhrase. First, he co-founded evetan.com, which is India’s first fully online payroll application. In the finance sector, he served for 4+ years as a Wealth Advisor to HNIs. Also, incubated and nurtured a digital marketing agency with a team of 75+ in Marketing sector.

It was that time when he noticed problems with data representation.  Neerav’s company’s clients always asked for his account managers to explain the campaign performance, even if they have given data in a proper report format along with pie charts and graphs to get the data with the help of graphic format. Besides these, the clients found it difficult to understand.

After this, he came up with his 3^rd venture in 2015, which is based on Artificial Intelligence and Big data. The company created ‘Phrazor’, a SaaS platform’s tool which accepts data, structures it, analyses it and then represents it in a story like a human can elaborate. He considered the fact that it is not only applicable in digital marketing industries, but also in every market which is a data driven industry.

The tool is very well accurate to help in making personalized data narratives for any company. The tool integrates with the client’s system via an API. The Analysis provided by it can perform via different platforms of mobile, email or web.

This Robot Journalist can write data analytics precisely according to the raw data shared with it. vPhrase charges the client, which differs from Rs. 10 to Rs. 2500 depending on the complexity of the report and data. The Phrasor works in the BFSI segment as an expert in generating Portfolio Report Analysis, Mutual fund factsheets, Sales report, etc.

Recognition

According to Neerav, “We were building things which have never been created earlier. Getting the tool to work the way we wanted it to, really tested our resolve. But overcoming those challenges and coming out with a product which customers are willing to pay for has been our biggest success.”

The company raised a seed round by Apoorv Ranjan Sharma and Daud Ali from Venture Catalysts and other prominent Angels from the VCats networks with an undisclosed amount. Canada-based Zone Startups also co-invested in the seed funding round with Founder Matt Saunders joining the team at vPhrase as an Angel observer. Also, the platform is partially funded by the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

Next What?

The company has won the ‘Economic Times Power Of Ideas’ content where 19000 teams participated from across the country. It has also selected for ‘Leaders In Innovation Fellowship’ by Royal Academy of Engineering, UK for the innovative work they are doing in the AI space.

According to Gartner, by 2020, 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human. Also, By Narrative Science, 44% of executives believe artificial intelligence’s most important benefit is “automated communications that provide data that can be used to make decisions.” So the scope is tremendous for vPhrase and such companies.

The Bottom Line

vPhrase, being a natural language generation company, planning to automate the role of trained to take the advantages of big data to ordinary people. The startup is already working with two of the top five private Indian banks, and some companies in insurance, broking, media and engineering space. Now looking to gain wider access to various enterprises in the BFSI sector through its investors.